Leon muesli bars...

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Ever since I first visited a Leon restaurant, I have been in love. What's not to like about reasonably priced, delicious food? I obviously talked about Leon a LOT as I received their second recipe book for Christmas from my parents. I can honestly say it was one of my favourite presents and I sat down and read it from cover to cover, mentally bookmarking recipes. Strangely enough, I have never had quite the right ingredients to try any of the recipes... until yesterday! I decided to bake some cereal bars as the cost of Tracker bars is prohibitive and I had a rather forlorn pack of museli sitting on the side in the kitchen.

Now I have to say, I used less honey (I'm not a fan of the sweet stuff) and I omitted the flour altogether, meaning my cereal bars are slightly sharper but nothing a sprinkling of sugar won't sort out!

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/ Gas Mark 5. Put the dried fruit into a processor and blitz until well chopped. Do the same for the nuts. Put the fruit, nuts, seeds and cinnamon into a bowl. (I don't actually have a food processor so I just left the fruit and nuts fairly large for a more 'rustic' effect.)

Warm the fruit juice and honey in a large pan together in a pan large enough to eventually contain all of the ingredients, until the honey is dissolved. Add the flour and oats, and stir in the fruit and nuts.

Smooth the mixture into a 25x30cm baking tray about 2.5cm deep. If the tray is not non-stick, it is wise to line it with baking parchment.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes- longer if you would like your bars more crunchy. Allow to cool, then cut into rectangular bars. They will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

I as really impressed with how easy the instructions were to follow and the bars are yummy and work out much cheaper than even the basic range of tracker bars at Sainsbury's. I will be doing a full review on the recipe book soon as it is too pretty not to share!

What's your favourite restaurant? Do you have a recipe book that you keep returning to?

I love Leon so much! I always go out of my way to go there for lunch if I'm in london! I keep tweeting at them to ask if they'll open in Bournemouth soon! I've got the second book but not the first. Haven't actually made anything out of it yet but after seeing this I might have to try something out! They look delish! X

Leon is amazing! I really want them to come to Birmingham or Cheltenham, would be amazing! Seriously do it, I made a slightly adapted version of the 100 cloves of garlic chicken- gorgeous is the only word for it :D

I think I love too many restaurants to have a favourite, but I have become a little obsessed with Jamie's Italian of late. I have a cook book called "The Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook" and yep, you guessed it, it only has recipes in it with 3 or 4 ingredients (plus standard store cupboard supplies of course). The recipes are delicious and its great on a student budget! Generally though, I'm more of a freestyler than a recipe follower! X